Coated with Sugar and Love
by Butterfly of the Dusk
Summary: Even after "The End," their story still continues.


**So, I haven't written fanfiction in a while, and I just decided to try something new. So I'm going to try this drabble series and see how my cliche fangirling works out. Also, to get myself back into writing. **

**I'm going to try as well as I can to get these drabbles in chronological order, but that's probably not going to happen. And just to warn you, I'm going to try to experiment with my writing style as much as possible in here. **

**Disclaimer: If I owned it, Kobato wouldn't be half as amazing as it is. **

* * *

"I'm looking for Fujimoto-san!"

The receptionist crumpled the newspaper in his hands. He had been hoping that the person before him, whoever they were, would have left if he pretended not to hear them. But, the bright, chipper voice only grew louder and more insistent, and honestly, it was starting to grate at his ears. Irately, he bunched up the newspaper into a mock sphere, tossing it in the wastebasket beside him.

"What is it?" he asked, finally acknowledging the person. Who was a girl. Who, if he recognized the uniform correctly, was a high school girl. Upon noticing this, he began nervously twiddling his fingers.

"Is there something bothering you?" The girl excitedly leaned forward, her pink, prickly hair swishing so violently that it whipped him in the face. The sheer momentum of it flung the blue doll - that had been resting on her shoulders - headfirst onto his desk. Barely centimeters apart now, he could just see the sparkles in her eyes. "Can I help you?"

"N-No. There's nothing wrong," he answered, returning the doll to the girl. Droplets of sweat were beginning to form on his forehead, and he wasn't sure if it was from the lack of air conditioning or the girl, who he swore was on fire with her overwhelming determination. Although the corner of his mouth was beginning to twitch with nervousness (and maybe fear), he put on his business smile as he hesitantly said, "Welcome to the Clamp***** Law Firm. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Her flames quickly extinguishing, the girl answered, albeit with a hint of disappointment, "I was looking for Fujimoto-san."

The receptionist blinked. Was he hearing correctly? Fujimoto-san? _That _Fujimoto-san? Ignoring the fact that that guy had to be at least twice her age, he was the most deadpan boring guy in the entire firm. And that was saying a lot.

"Um...yes, but Fujimoto-san may be busy right now. You can just leave me a message for now and I'll be sure to tell him for you," he finally managed to spit out.

"Oh. But...I wanted to give this to him...by myself." The girl lifted her arms, showing the portly man a present so sloppily wrapped that the gift itself was impossible to identify.

Even so, every single negative impression he had about this girl immediately flew out the window. "Ah, I think it's his birthday today, isn't it?" Tenderly smiling, he added, "He'll be in the third room to the right."

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, perching the doll back on her shoulder. With a wave, she left. Waving back, the receptionist took up his pen and decided to start his paperwork...and then abruptly turned back to the girl. Was she...talking to her doll?

.

"Can I help you?" Ioryogi whispered several octaves above his normal pitch, as if mocking her. Turning his head very slightly to the left, he glared at her, and in his regular voice he screeched, "Honestly! Do you like helping people that much?! Where was _that _determination when you actually _needed _it?!"

"Sorry." She awkwardly laughed. "I guess it's just a force of habit."

"Hmph! Once a Dobato, always a Dobato," he bitterly muttered.

"That's not very nice-! Oh! We're here, Ioryogi-san!"

She abruptly stopped, once again causing Ioryogi to jerk forward and crash on the floor.

"DO-BA-TO!" He opened his mouth wide, preparing to scorch the girl. But she paid no heed.

"Fujimoto-san!" Kobato erratically waved with her right hand, the other cradling the oddly shaped gift. When he turned around, she rushed towards him...and tripped.

Kobato blinked. She was pretty sure she hadn't fallen on the floor; after all, the floor was made of tile, so it would have hurt. This surface was much softer and warmer. Looking up, her amber eyes met his green. Heat flared up from her chin to her ears, and she wiggled to escape from his grasp, only to notice that his right arm had been wrapped around her waist.

Smiling, the man asked, "What are you doing here?" She failed to notice the faint blush dappling his cheeks.

"Um...I made this for you." Squirming out of his arms, she dumped the gift in his now outstretched hands. "Happy birthday!"

He chuckled just a bit, and Kobato marveled at how much he had changed since they first met - from that perpetually angry jerk to this man glowing with mirth, just the slightest sparkle in his eyes. And for a moment, they were captured in each other's eyes, before he tore himself away from her gaze and finally looked at her present. Plopping down on his seat, his deft fingers began unwrapping the red and blue polka-dotted paper. At first, Kobato watched with unbridled glee, but after nearly a minute had passed and he still hadn't finished (so agonizingly slow were his careful ways), she had to restrain her urge to pluck it out of his hands and rip the paper off herself; while he was a man of thought, she was a girl of action.

A few more seconds passed, and the paper crinkled as he pulled out the actual gift itself, exposing a pale yellow blob, two black beads haphazardly stitched onto what he assumed to be a head. "What is this?"

After a brief moment of silence and confusion, Kobato's face went from horror stricken to a distinctive pout. She had worked an entire week, blissfully imagining his reaction when he would receive it. In all her reveries, she had never encountered this particular one from him, but now in her upset state, she realized that she should have expected it.

Fujimoto scrambled to make up for his error. Thinking back to the days when they both worked at the nursery, he asked, "Is it a rabbit?" When she shook her head, he began to list off various animals, starting with - "Dog? Lion? Fish? Dove? Cat? Lamb?" With each animal name falling from his lips, her frown grew increasingly deeper before he thoughtlessly blurted out, "A baby chick?"

She beamed at him, and he looked back down at the gift. Upon further inspection, he concluded that the section with the two beads was indeed a head. A larger sphere was connected to it, trailing into a softly pointed tip. On it, were small wings, each a fourth the size of the head, a curlicue connecting the three pieces of cloth she had intended to be feathers******. Looking at it this way, it really did look like a chick. Her arts and crafts skills had really improved, he mused. Turning back to the girl, he said, "They both look cute."

"Both?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

Leaning in for a peck on her cheek, he whispered in her ear, "I meant you too."

* * *

*** I didn't know what to call the Law firm, so I decided to just credit it to the original authors. If it does have a name, please tell me and I'll change it. **

**** If that description confuses you, I was trying to describe it so that they resembled Kero's wings from Cardcaptor Sakura**

**These drabbles will probably vary in length and I can make no promises for the frequency in updates. Sorry. **

**Thank you for reading and please review if you have the time!**


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